UK Innovator Visa will replace the Tier 1 Entrepreneur Visa

UK Home Secretary Sajid Javid has announced a major overhaul of immigration regime for overseas Entrepreneurs in the Parliament. UK Innovator Visa will now replace the Tier 1 Entrepreneur Visa.

UK Start-up Visa was also announced by Sajid Javid. This is for those who are launching a new business in the UK for the first time. UK Innovator Visa is for experienced business individuals who possess funds for investing in their business.

The Home Secretary said that both the new streams will be based on the endorsement model. This has proved to be successful for our Exceptional Talent and Graduate Entrepreneur routes, he added.

Business experts and not the Home Office will assess the business ideas of the applicants. This is for their scalability, viability, and innovation. It is for identifying those ideas that will incur optimum benefits to the UK.

The assessing agencies will include Seed competitions, Business accelerators, and Government agencies. Higher education provides will also be included, as quoted by the Guardian.

The UK Innovator Visa and UK Start-up Visa will replace the current Entrepreneur and Graduate Entrepreneur Visas. These have attracted a couple of high-quality businesses to the UK.

However, the Entrepreneur Program has a long list of projects of low quality. These have contributed minimal or nothing at all to the broader economy of the UK.

Sajid Javid said that the existing pathways will be kept open for a period of transition. This is for those who are already having these UK Visas. It is for extending their stay and enabling them to settle if they fulfil the current requirements.

The applications for Tier 1 Entrepreneur Visa will be accepted until March 29, 2019. The conditions for the UK Innovator Visa are yet to be announced.